The title of a forgotten touring car race held 43 years ago will return next month at the same circuit, with the same sponsor and the same category of cars.
Tasmania’s Baskerville Historics event, held over October 16-18, will see Group C & A Heritage Touring Cars race for the Tilford Touring Car Cup.
The same title was last used in March 1983 when a four-car fleet of touring cars ventured south to Hobart’s Baskerville Raceway for a non-championship series of match races.
Hobart-based automotive dealer and long-time Baskerville supporter, Tilford Auto Group, is backing the Group C & A category’s races as it did the Group C exhibition event in ’83.
Dick Johnson at Baskerville. Image: Bruce Smart (oldmotorsportphotos.com.au)
The 1983 event formed an unofficial Tasmanian touring car double-header, as it was held the weekend after the Symmons Plains round of the Australian Touring Car Championship.
Staying on for the Baskerville meeting were the STP/Roadways VH Commodores of Allan Grice and Steve Harrington, the Palmer Tube Mills XE Falcon of Dick Johnson and a privateer Commodore for Tasmanian dairy farmer, David Parsons.
Race start at Baskerville. Image: Bruce Smart (oldmotorsportphotos.com.au)
Three races were held – over seven, eight and 10 laps respectively – with Grice winning all three on the road, although Harrington was declared the winner of the opening heat after Grice and Johnson incurred time penalties (one minute each!) for jumping the start.
Grice won the event overall, which followed a hard-fought victory at Symmons Plains over Allan Moffat’s Mazda RX7 to complete a near perfect week in Tasmania.
According to period reports from Auto Action, while Grice was down south he won almost $2,000 at Hobart’s Wrest Point Casino too!
Tasmanian race commentator David Rose announces the podium ceremony featuring Grice, Johnson and Parsons. Image: Bruce Smart (oldmotorsportphotos.com.au)
The field for the Tilford Touring Car Cup in 2026 will be decidedly larger than the four-car match races of 1983, with between 25 to 30 cars expected – more than half of which are likely to be Group C cars.
Baskerville, Australia’s southernmost racing circuit, held numerous non-championship touring car events in the 1970s and ‘80s, including the last ever contemporary race of the Group C era in late 1984.
Baskerville Historics is an advertising partner of V8 Sleuth